


Putting Two and Two Together

by brutti_ma_buoni



Category: CW Network RPF
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 13:24:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5376845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brutti_ma_buoni/pseuds/brutti_ma_buoni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen’s lost someone. Gen is motivated to find him. Exactly why she’s looking, though, is something neither of them understands yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Putting Two and Two Together

**Author's Note:**

> In addition to the main relationship tagged, please note this references previous unhappy Jared/Jensen, offscreen Jared/OFC, and contains onscreen Jensen/Genevieve. None of those is where this is headed.
> 
> For maerhys, for SPN J2 Xmas 2015

Technically, nobody _required_ a fedora to be a PI, but Genevieve Cortese needed all the traditional support she could muster. Nobody respects PI when she's a short, skinny, young, pretty and above all _female_ person. And Gen hated not getting respect. Had been known to frogmarch potential clients out of the office when she felt disrespected. She might look like a cupcake, but she knew how to impose her will on bigger (dumber) humans. Hence the fedora on the back of her door. It had a role to play.

This guy, though, he looked plenty respectful. Plenty beautiful, too, which wasn't something that walked into Gen's place of business too often. Wide green eyes, cute lil nose, anxious wringing hands as he tried to find the words to get started.

"Are you scared?" Gen started that way, usually, when the client wasn't visibly raging with the fury of betrayal. Because if someone was scared, there might be an urgency factor that took this over her simple billable rates.

His eyelid flickered briefly, but that could have been a tic. It wasn't quite enough to draw conclusions, but she noted it. "No ma'am," he said, calm and polite as you please.

"It's Gen," she said. _Ma'am_. Sweet. But not for her.

"Oh," he replied. "Me too, sorta. Jensen. Ackles. Jensen Ackles."

"Good to meet you, Jensen Ackles," she said. He was pretty, respectful, and most likely not running for his life. Plus, business was slow and it was raining outside. She settled in for a good long talk.

*

It didn't take so very long to get Jensen to the nub of his issue.

"I'm here to ask you to find someone. It's my buddy," he said, and showed her a photo. Which got Gen even more intrigued, because that was one long tall beauty, arm slung around Jensen's neck, Leaning down to share the camera lens, but still high enough Gen could imagine he'd be fun to climb. Being small and limber had its upsides.

"Jared," said Jensen, and there was just enough love in those syllables that Gen began recalibrating. "He's been missing for a week."

She looked at the tenderness around his mouth, the worn edges of the picture, well-loved… "You know," she said mildly, "You can tell me you're a couple. I'm not some prejudiced asshole, and even if I was, it'd be important to know what he is to you."

Jensen sighed, rubbed his eyes. "Are we? Maybe. More than lovers, more than friends, sure. But- I don't know why, we just never fit right, the two of us. We get together, rub up against each other wrong, call it quits, come back together. Maybe we're no good for each other. But I love him. And I'd follow him into Hell to save him, if I had to."

"Any special reason you think he's in Hell?" Gen tried for mild, there. "You have a fight? You know why he'd be gone?" Because if this was a spurned lover, stalking an ex, she might just turn down this case right now.

Jensen shook his head, all calm and reliable, though. "Naw. We've been good this past couple years. Kind of called it quits back in '13, when we started to hate each other because we couldn't be each other's everything. Good friendships are too rare to piss away, I reckon."

"He got a new guy?" The obvious. Maybe that Jared was holed up in Maui, fuck-drunk and free of Chicago's icy drizzle.

"Had a girl, for a while," Jensen said it calmly enough. "But seemed like that fizzled a while back. Haven't heard he's seeing someone new, and I think I'd know. At least a text, or whatever, if she's not interested in sharing him with me, which, you know, sometimes... But he's gone dark, gone silent. And Jay-" his mouth curled, lovingly. "Jay's not a one to be silent."

Well. Okay then. Gen blinked away the possibilities of that one, for now, in the cause of professionalism. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t someday revisit that little scenario, in her own way and for her own purposes. Not the point now, not the point, but _god_ this guy and his talk were getting her revved. Finding Jared became just a little bit more than a job, in her head.

She coughed, too abrupt, and thought Jensen caught her thought. Damnation. “So, you have any ideas where I should focus the search? I’ll run the usual, credit cards, plates, friends and co-workers, but any special pointers you have would help. Keep your costs down, if I can find him faster. Assuming he wants to be found.”

“Cost isn’t an issue,” he shot back, frowning. But she’d had plenty of clients on long jobs start out that way and find in the end that love had an upper price limit. Jensen kept right on frowning, but a thoughtful, reminiscent expression now. Like he was running over recent interactions, filtering them for anything out of the ordinary. Sifting the usual from the just-a-little-sideways.

It took awhile. Usually did, from clients looking for truth. The ones that got Gen worried were those that started out fast and bland, “Oh no, nothing like that.” Denial or cover-up were never healthy. Jensen reached for his cellphone, checked a calendar, checked his texts. Occasionally nodded, or shook his head. She was about to ask him to start narrating, in case she saw more than he did when he finally said, “I think- I mean, you have to understand, Jay talks all the time. And talks big, a lot of the time. So it may not be anything. But all I can think is- He said to me, couple days before he dropped out, ‘Ruby’s gonna make me rich.’ And that isn’t like him. He isn’t a dreamer about hitting the bigtime, you know?”

Gen tried not to scare the nice paying client by her reaction, but for sure her jaw had locked, her spine stiffened and her voice seemed to boom in a suddenly silent room. “Ruby’s?” Because that was one hell of a coincidence-

“Yeah,” Jensen, apparently untroubled by her reaction, nodded, a little patronisingly in truth. “Rubies. You know, the red gemstones? Like, diamonds or something.”

“I know what rubies are,” she said, too quick, and this time he did notice something was off. “So, he was maybe onto something criminal? Not too many rubies kicking around the backstreets waiting to make someone rich.”

Jensen shook his head, and said, “Jared wouldn’t-“ And stopped. “Well. Maybe in a good cause? But, it’s too weird. He’s not about to plan some jewel heist, and he doesn’t have a million special Ocean’s Eleven skills to get cut in on someone else’s. He’s just a guy, you know? A great guy.”

*

Rubies. Or Ruby? Gen had to admit, the first option was more likely. Rubies and riches and a nice guy with a cause going missing. It held together. Her own spinal itch at the name Ruby couldn’t be her only guide here. But it kept right on itching as she started to look into the life and contacts of Jared Padalecki, barista and dog-walker, and all round nice guy.

She talked more with Jensen, regular and polite. No more intimate than she’d be with any client, keeping him updated, pumping him for any extra information he could drag from his brain. Silently enjoying the way his eyes would stray, sometimes, before he yanked himself back to propriety and business. She didn’t often hook up with clients, and never while the case was live. But she had a feeling this one might come knocking, after – assuming she didn’t beat him to it. Assuming the case turned out something other than tragic or a big romantic reunion with the guy she suspected was the love of Jensen’s life.

Meantime, getting to the bottom of the case was where she needed to be at. When you asked about someone missing from a regular life, you always had to wait for the ‘but’. Everyone started out avowing what a great guy the non-attender was, or how quiet, how normal, friendly, whatever. Not many folks spend their time itemising the minor foibles of passing acquaintances, or not ones they like. Jared also had a disappointing lack of disgruntled ex partners, nosy retired neighbours keeping a watch on his place, or better friends than Jensen with more dirt to dig. But Gen waited for the ‘but’, and it gave her some idea of what he was really about.

_“A great guy, so much fun… but I think he’s a little lonely now things didn’t work out with Jensen.”_

_“…but he doesn’t take the best care of himself. He’s been a little down.”_

_“…but he’s awful easy with his sympathy, you know? Not too picky about his friends and who he helps out.”_

_“…but he’s in a rut, and he knows it. Sometimes when we’re slow, he’d talk about how he used to be an actor, couldn’t hack the hours and the pay, never made it to the big time. I think he’s happy enough, day to day, but- He wants more. I hope that’s what he’s doing.”_

So that was what came after the but for Padalecki. It was good stuff, if you were worried about him. Nothing too sinister. No swallowed silences over bad news, no indication of feuding and fisticuffs, no vengeful impulses or exes. Gen could be pretty sure he was worth saving. On the other hand, a thwarted actor, ripe for adventure, dreaming of rubies? Might need saving pretty quick, pretty hard. The tickle in Gen’s spine intensified. Woke her in the small hours from one of her good dreams, largely featuring Jensen, Jared and a photo she’d liked of them wrapped around a small dark girl, years back. Damn tickle. Damn id.

She was pretty pissed with the case by the time she got a ping from Jared’s tumblr login, somewhere near Springfield, nowhere she’d been expecting. A relief, to have a chance to get moving, get active, get professional. She checked in with Jensen, asked if he was okay with additional costs, and got on the road. Absolutely not thinking about the guy she’d left behind, waiting for her call.

Two days into staking out the Springfield motel scene, she saw a familiar face. Jensen’s. He ducked and blushed, looking abashed as a guy should who employed a PI and didn’t trust her to get the job done alone. So pretty, with his stuttering eyes-cast-down shame, freckles standing out sharp-clear on his nose. She was only human.

“Stop talking,” she said, and dragged him inside her bland and boring room. It was supposed to be discreet, professional, and it turned into anything but in ten hectic seconds. It was Gen who backed him against the door the second it was closed, up in his face, way too close. But it was Jensen who closed the gap, furiously biting kisses bringing a flush to her skin and a burn to her cunt. She flipped them around so he could lift her, braced against the door, and it was only the grace of a convenient condom in his jeans pocket that protected them from risking something worse than unprofessionalism between client and PI.

He carried her to the bed, after, and cleaned them both up, gentlemanly. “Should I say sorry?” He looked startled, cautious, uncertain of what he just did. Not a guy given to impulse, Jensen Ackles. Maybe that was what drew him to Jared, the casual and carefree. This guy was much more like Gen, not so much like Ruby- And now wasn’t the time to be thinking about Ruby.

“Sorry? Not from where I’m lying,” she said, playing the vamp and shifting enough on the mattress to make everything jiggle real good. “Sometimes you gotta blow off some steam, right?” He watched her mouth form _blow_ , and mirrored her, and goddam she wanted to see him do that for real. Maybe if this case worked out they’d be grateful? There could be rewards from client and lost lamb, sharing her between them-

She drifted off awhile, and Jensen was still there when she came back. Asleep, in fact, lashes dropped dark against his pale skin. Dark rings under his eyes telling her he needed rest from wakefulness and worry both. It was a mistake, this thing, and wouldn’t be repeated, but it filled a need for them both. Or so Gen told herself, as the night wore on. They repeated the mistake a couple more times, in the small hours. Just to make sure. And she slept in the end with the taste of him deep in her throat, and his hand on her ass, pinning her safe-warm to the sheets.

This time, he was gone when she woke.

*

It wasn’t so hard finding Jared. The guy was big, built and liked to talk. Plenty of guys and ladies had spent some part of the past few days noting and appreciating some or all of that package. But by the time Gen ran him down each time, he’d moved along.

Not so, though, the odd comments that flowed alongside the confirmations of Jared’s recent presence.

_…You guys seemed tight… Bet he’s a whole lotta man to keep contented (wink, wink)…. Didja lose him, honey? I hope you catch right on up to him and make him sorry for leaving you._

Gen wanted someone there to hear her swear, see her turn puce, to move valuables out of her way so that when she smashed the bathroom mirror it wasn’t with her cell. None of that happened.

Jensen might have run out on her, but he was still following. She hadn’t even tried to warn him off. When she took off for Newtown, she made sure to dally long enough for him to catch her trail, and when they both pulled over for gas and coffee, she didn’t try to duck his gaze. Took her coffee over to his booth, in fact, and slumped opposite him.

“So,” she said. “I have a sister.”

Whatever Jensen was expecting from her opening gambit, it wasn’t that, so he just flapped a hand in a ‘go on’ gesture. “A twin, actually. Identical. I’m the good girl, she’s the bad. Or, she’d tell you I’m the boring one and she’s the one who knows how to have fun. Either way, nobody’d be giving her a PI license any time soon. She has a record, and anyone who reads it knows it’s just the faintest reflection of what she does. She’s a con artist, she’s very, very good, and she likes to fuck up people with power and money.”

Jensen was kind of nodding through this, but evidently baffled. “And I’m telling you this because her name is Ruby, and I’m pretty sure that’s who Jared thinks is gonna make his fortune.”

The pretty face opposite paled, then flushed, and Jensen’s hands clenched on the sticky table top between them. “Jared’s not- He wouldn’t _do_ that.”

“Not ever?” Gen asked. “Even if the victim was a bad person? Who tortured puppies? Even if it could be mostly fun and only a little bit criminal and stealing round the edges, just to make a point? Because Ruby loves to make points, and she’s really not just in it for the money.”

Jensen was still shaking his head, so she followed up again. “Because people tell me Jared loves to play a part. And that he’s bored. And people in Springfield tell me he’s travelling with _me_. Now, you and I know that’s not the case, Jensen, so I don’t have another explanation for what in hell’s happening. Tell me again there’s no way Jared’s doing this.”

“She could have forced him,” said Jensen, but it was weak, and she didn’t have to do more than cast him a sceptical look. Gen was pretty tough, but given a week in close quarters with Jensen, she was pretty sure he could take her. He knew it, she knew it, and she didn’t need to labour that point. Besides, she had other interests. “So I gotta ask, assuming this isn’t the biggest coincidence of my life, how come you came to me? Because I know of at least five other PIs in town, so-“

Jensen’s fisted hands had relaxed, flattened and resigned against the table top. “I didn’t think it was important,” he said. “But Jared had your card. It was right out on his kitchen table. I don’t think I’d have even thought of calling a PI without that. Never done it before in my life. I kind of thought you guys were a myth.”

Gen took a deep calming breath, trying to let the rage subside. “Okay. That could mean many things, and all of them were important. Maybe Jared wanted to be rescued, and that was all the clue he could leave? Or maybe- Shit. Maybe my sister wanted me to follow her, and we’re doing just exactly that. Thanks, Jensen. Great move.”

Pissing off the client technically wasn’t any part of Gen’s business approach, but seemed like there were reasons enough here. She didn’t punch anything this time, though, and decided to call it a win.

“What now?” Jensen asked, after a while of silence. He sounded at least a little abashed.

“Now I guess we stick together,“ Gen said. “Someone wanted us here, someone maybe wanted us both here, and there’s no way I’m trusting that they wanted that because they’re going to shower us with puppies. We’re going on to Newtown, and we’re gonna find out what the hell is what.”

*

Gen generally worked alone, PI fees not being of the order that encouraged splitting the loot. But Jensen wasn’t a bad sidekick, all told. He obeyed at least half her orders, and his research skills weren’t so bad, at least in relation to understanding what might interest Jared enough to start him off in a lawbreaking vein. Newtown State College was the big employer in town, but neither turned up anything promising on that. Jensen, though, found a story on Freddie Melger, CEO of Advanced BioCorp, setting up home in the neighbourhood after many years in Washington.

“Advanced BioCorp,” he said, patiently, like it had to mean something to her. “As in, the dachsunds? The mascara trials? God, Jay was so angry about that. I mean, he still is. You want to see him furious, just say mascara, he’ll pop. If he could make Melger angry, there’s no way he wouldn’t. And if he could hurt him, in the wallet? Pretty sure he’d do that in a heartbeat.”

Which was why, not two days after realising she’d been suckered into this case (though, why? Ruby, what’re you playing at?), Gen watched her big sister and Jensen’s ex charming the pants off Big Money guy at the only decent bar in town. Ruby looked good, in her usual lethal way. Jared was putting on a big show of confidence and charm, hand under her elbow half the time, clapping Melger on the shoulder a whole bunch. He showed his phone screen a few times, just briefly, like he was explaining something, and Gen strained to see whether she could catch either screen or conversation at that point, but it was over too quick. The only words she caught were something about fishing, and another about the country club.

She took a bunch of photos and went home to her bland motel room and Jensen. (What? She was being thrifty with her client’s money now she'd quit pretending he wasn't following her, and his enthused co-operation suggested he was fine with a little unprofessional bedsharing.)

He got a little quiet over the photos, though. “They look good together.”

“Yeah, no,” said Gen, brutally. “Ruby hates being pawed. That’s just her playing a role. And probably they’re not even fucking, okay? She saves that for really big scores. It’s a power thing. She’s not a snuggler.”

She hated the hope in Jensen’s eyes, even though she’d purposely raised it. But whatever Ruby was at, she was damn certain it wasn’t a forever with Jared. And whatever Jensen told himself about sticking to buddies with Jared now, no way he wasn’t still in love. Which made Gen… what, exactly, in this thing?

If she got a little drunk that night, who could blame her?

*

They argued out tactics next day. Assuming it was a long con Ruby was planning (and she wasn’t the wham, bam type, ever), they had time. They could go for discreet. They could warn Melger and take the legs out from under Ruby’s evil scheme, risking jail for those guys who’d involved Gen and Jensen in their mess. Or, there was this option.

The same bar. Next night. Ruby and Jared sharing a table and a whole lot of fake smiles.

“Mind if we join you?” asked Gen, sliding into the booth on Jared’s side. Jensen silently mirrored her, looking from Gen to Ruby and back the way most people did when they first met the twins. It was an awfully close likeness. Though Gen’s look always tended to the more practical, and Ruby could be anything from skull tees to today’s questionably-Prada scarf look.

Jared’s eyes were popping. Apparently the twin thing was news. Apparently also, he hadn’t been expecting Jensen to come looking for them.

“What are you doing here?” he wobbled out, eventually.

“I invited them, sweetheart,” said Ruby, poisonously-sweet. “Or, I hoped.” Which answered to Gen’s satisfaction the questions of who left her business card in Jared’s apartment, and whether her twin was fucking him. Nope. Definitely nope. She sounded exasperated rather than entranced by him. Not such a perfect partnership, perhaps? Ruby smiled at her, full and wide. “Happy birthday, sister.”

Fucking rude. Just absolutely fucking _rude_. Gen sat, simmering, while Jared and Jensen exclaimed. She didn’t want to explain. But, ultimately, better her than Ruby.

“It’s not our birthday, guys. Ruby’s just messing you around.”

“I’m not, I’m playing fairy godmother,” said her evil twin, smiling too much. “You need a guy, or two. These two need something to make their epic love work for them. I hope you’re very happy together, guys.”

“Wait,” said Jared, ignoring all that bullshit the way Gen really wished she could. “Aren’t we here on a job?”

Ruby folded her neatly manicured hands, sighed, and waited till she had everyone’s rapt attention. Gen’s stomach squirmed. “Sweetie, I can play more than one game, okay? I’m here on a job. You’re here on an audition for my sister – and, hey, you passed. If you can convince her you’re not a no-count con, and if she and your boyfriend haven’t been fucking too much to care about you-“

Jensen’s face flamed. Gen saw Jared seeing it, and broke a little. “-then go ahead with my blessing. Meantime, I’m going after BioCorp. All bereft and alone after my fiancé ratted out on me.” She smiled at them for a moment, and then, “So, if you’ll excuse me-“

Jensen, robotically, let her leave the booth. Gen considered beating her to the ground then and there, but there were way too many witnesses. And she needed to get her client out of there, not to mention her successfully-retrieved lost puppy, before they both started crying on her, or each other, at how they got fooled. She said not a word as Ruby left. Nor any more than were needed to pay the check and get the hell out of there.

The motel room felt extra small with three in there. The king bed looked accusingly at them, too obviously occupied by two till now. Jared subsided onto it, all big hands, long legs, baffled eyes, folded like a puppet, discarded by his puppetmaster. Too on the nose, that thought. Jensen said, at last, “I’m really glad we found you, Jay. I was worried. I was _so_ fuckin’ worried. Don’t you ever leave me that way again.” He sat down alongside of his love, and kissed him, hard.

It was good. Needed. Raw with love and fear and anger and truth, everything Jared hadn’t been getting lately. Everything Ruby wasn’t capable of. Gen considered leaving them, then. Sleeping in the car wouldn’t kill her for one night. But she needed to know stuff. And Jensen’s words undammed Jared’s verbal flood.

“I wanted to do something big,” he started. Low and sad, and guilty to start. The more he talked, though, the more it was the guy she’d been looking for speaking. The less the broken toy her sister discarded. He was funny, about passing through towns setting up their personas. Not even a little bit apologetic that he’d given away the plotters' position through his tumblr fixation (“Hey, I thought that was Ruby’s plan all along, turned out. I just facilitated.” His goofy grin over that dumbass remark was one of those that made Gen warm up to him even more than she was already prepared for).

Jensen grumbled and swore and fussed at Jared throughout, half mother hen, half disgusted buddy. All worried beloved, too. They hadn’t touched at all. Like there was a barrier she couldn’t understand, and in the end not-understanding was enough to push Gen into indiscretion. “You not gonna-"

“What did Ruby mean, happy birthday?” Jared asked, suddenly. She’d been hoping no one would follow up on that.

“Nothing. It’s stupid. A sister thing.”

Jensen looked at her with laughter in his eyes, leaning easy on Jared's sprawled form. Not fooling him, for sure. Probably not Jared either, or not for long. She felt her shoulders tighten, her lips purse. Ruby. Always Ruby, messing with her life. “So, I’m glad to report this case successfully concluded.” It was abrupt, and she stepped away from the bed, all business, no touch. “I’ll invoice by the end of the week. Prompt payment is appreciated. Small business cashflow, all that.”

The guys blinked at her. Fair. She knew they were new to the whole sneaking and spying business. Now she’d met Jared, Gen was wholly certain he’d be a terrible conspirator, too. He really wasn’t built for it. Unlike her. Unlike Ruby. All the more reason to get gone.

“No way,” said Jared, first, but Jensen was already shaking his head, so they were on the same unwelcome page. “No way are we leaving you to clean up this mess.”

Dammit. They weren’t supposed to- “It’s not a mess. And it most definitely isn’t your business. It’s just a family thing.”

“Are you going to stop her?” Jensen asked.

“Turn her in?” Jared echoed. “Because BioCorp is for shit and I wouldn’t ever be sorry to see them hurting. And she’d go to jail, Gen.”

Jensen was looking at Jared with an expression Gen couldn’t quite read. “You like her,” he said, eventually, but he didn’t sound pissed.

“Yeah,” Jared said. “She screwed me over, a little, but she’s fun, and she didn’t lie to me much. Just, didn’t say she didn’t need me for the big finale.”

“Or that she’d take all the cash, if it works out,” Gen said, but he just shrugged at her. Well. That fitted with those ‘buts’ from his friends. He’d been more into the fun of illicit activity than and profit, even if ‘Ruby’s gonna make me rich’ was how he’d sometimes pitched it, for bravado. Whatever the hell else he was, it wasn’t heartbroken. But also? Not needed here. At all. “I probably won’t call the cops. But she can’t just con her way through life. Especially not in my locality. She’s just doing it to piss me off, guys. She doesn’t care about animal testing or whatever. And there’s no need for you to be caught up in my business."

"Pretty sure it's _our_ business," said Jensen. Wait, Jensen? It absolutely wasn't Jensen's business, and she hadn't been expecting any trouble from that quarter. But his arms were folded, jaw set. Jared too, when she glanced across, looked pretty freaking determined to keep his toehold in Gen's crazy world.

She tried, really tried, to think of a way to get them to leave. Ignored them awhile, working through her file, looking back over old Ruby contacts, trying to work out the angle. But they didn't leave, though the night was wearing on. Didn't keep silent, either, Jensen drawing Jared out about the past few weeks. He was a decent interviewer, she had to give him so much. Jared's quiet confession punctuated her note taking and research. Jensen's murmurs of understanding keeping Jared going, spilling more news, little laughs at his own expense. Jensen's hand on Jared's knee pretty often, the two of them spilling across the bed as Gen made the best of the uncomfortable motel furniture with her laptop and notebook. It was… oddly companionable.

Around midnight, she looked up, rolling her neck. Eyes burning, brain fogged. Time for a break. "Okay. Did either of you stars think to get another room?"

There's a pause. Jared's hands fluttered, indecisive, down to his knees like he was going to stand up, then up, toward Jensen, like an invitation to something she knew they had decided wasn't for them any more. Jensen, though, rolled his head in turn, to look at her very directly. His gaze level, he waited for her response. Apparently, got it.

"It's a big bed," he said. Did stand, walking into the bathroom where his gear sat with Gen's. "You wanna borrow my toothbrush, Jay?"

"Eeeeuuw," said Jared. Who, now she thought of it, had nothing but the clothes he stood up in. Getting his gear back from Ruby would be another joy for tomorrow. "Reception will probably sell me some shit. I'll be back." He paused. "…Uh. If that's?" He looked at Gen, far more open and unsure than Jensen, but not quite offering her the out he clearly expected her to take.

"Sure, whatever," she said in response. He was a stranger. But Jensen liked him, and she was too damn tired to be a priss about it tonight. For clarity, she dressed for sleep in the flannel pjs she hadn't been wearing while it was just Jensen, and was in the bed before Jared got back. "Night," she murmured, as he crashed into the bathroom, and was probably asleep before he answered.

Which was how, in the morning, she woke up overheated, burning with unfamiliar warmth, and discovered the way the two guys had chosen to sleep was with Gen as their sandwich filling. Not actually how she'd pictured things. Or, exactly how she'd pictured, maybe. She had her face mashed into Jared's chest, the steady, drowsy beat of his heart under her cheek. Behind her, Jensen was stirring.

When she imagined this (of course she did, of course she had), Jensen had never been the leader. Awed by Gen's power, maybe, or shocked and coaxed into playing along while Jared led them into temptation. Turned out, Jensen knew exactly how this should go.

He said, into her ear, "So, Jay thinks you're pretty." High school dumb words, accompanied by un-teenaged sureness of hands skimming up her thighs, furry flannel numbing the feeling. He reached her waist, and let his fingers drift and play with the band. "But he thinks you're too nice to do this with a guy you don't even know. That you'd be shocked."

His hands dipped and skimmed, flirting with bare flesh. The tingles of her body were as intense as if he'd been outright touching her, driving her to arousal. "I think you're more than that. I _know_ you've been thinking about this, right? Cuz I have too." She pushed back at him, feeling him plastered along her back line, nudging hard against her ass. In return, his hand slid definitively beneath her waistband, cupping her lightly, fingers playing as they turned wet and slippery. She gasped, open-mouthed, into Jared's chest.

"Jay?" said Jensen. "I think you wanna wake up for this." Jared twitched in his sleep, and cupped the back of Gen’s head, pulling her into him.

She bit, lightly, and his eyes opened. “Oh,” he said, pleased if not surprised. “Mornin’.” He slipped his nearer arm under Gen, jostling her against Jensen, hauling her higher. Just for a moment, they held one another’s gaze. _I don’t know you_ , they exchanged, silently.

“I’m not her,” said Gen.

“I know,” Jared said, comfortably. “Genevieve Cortese, as I live and breathe. This all okay with you?”

His hands were slipping underneath her pajama top, clashing with Jensen’s which were finding their way back underneath the bottoms, surrounding her in men, big hands, warm bodies, and way too much clothing. Easily dispensed with, though, with determination.

The men were careful with her. Not the first time they'd shared, she already guessed that much. They knew how to include her, not make it too evident that she was a new spare part in their long time unsatisfied love. They didn't even kiss till after she had come, Jared inside her, Jensen's fingers taking them both to climax while his hips rolled against her side, relaxed and patient for the time when they'd be capable of focus on him. It was Jared who turned his head first, after the happy groans subsided, seeking Jensen's mouth, reaching out his hand in turn.

They lay till checkout time, sleepy-sticky and intermingled. But Gen had places to be. Sisters to turn in. Or save. To be determined. She was first in the shower, first into her clothing, first to the door.

"You in a hurry, babe?" Jared said lazily from the bed where he'd barely skinned into underwear and was contemplating the future with a look of calm she couldn't share.

"Ruby waits for no man," she answered, shrugging into her coat, stiffening her spine. "And you guys are sweet, but-"

"No buts," said Jensen. Closer than she'd thought. His arms were bare when he wrapped her around from behind. "And no running away. Or, we hope not. We're serious if you need us to help with Ruby. We may be amateurs, but we're not fools."

Jared snorted. "Sweet of you to say so." There was just a smidge of self-blame still, there. Maybe would be awhile longer. Would he be okay, if she let them go off back to their old lives without seeing this through? She could see from the sheer distance between their bodies, already, that they weren't about to fall back into their doomed pairing alone. They needed that sandwich filling. And… well. She wasn't always the good sister, the sensible sister, the boring sister. Sometimes, she'd take what Ruby offered her.

"You have to understand that if we do this, I'm the boss," she said, finally.

The way they exchanged glances, nodded, and both said at once, "Yes ma'am." Well. That did something interesting. She had meant for the case, insofar as it was a case. But there was a dynamic there that could maybe make a future. A future with promising power she'd never sought and now found sweet.

"We want to stick around," Jared said, finally. "With you."

And there was enough in that, maybe, for now. Gen headed for the door, with a lift in her head and a tingle in her innards. "You got ten minutes or I'm headed out alone."

"We'll be there," said Jensen. Sounded like he meant it.

***


End file.
